Jackson & Levine: Hosts With The Most

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Jackson & Levine are renowned for their sought-after supper clubs. Here they share their top tips on throwing a dinner party to remember.

SIZE MATTERS

You don’t need to cater for 100 people. If you want to give supper clubs a go there’s no reason why you can’t do it for 4, 8 or 10 people. We’ve always stuck to around 16-25 people and it’s just a normal kitchen with a normal oven and that’s about the max, we’d be stressing ourselves out to do anymore. Start with a number that feels comfortable so you can still enjoy yourself.

DON’T GO (STIR) CRAZY

Now is not the time for a challenge; cook something you feel comfortable cooking, so if you’ve never cooked Japanese before maybe don’t do sushi! But if your grandmother is French and has passed you on a great beef bourguignon recipe or a French onion soup, that’s the thing to do because you’ve got a connection, a bit of history and authenticity there. We only ever cook seasonal British fare because that’s what we feel comfortable doing. Just do something really simple but do it really well.

IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS

The look and feel of the night is just as important as the food so give a little bit of thought to how you are going to dress the room and table. You’ll want your food to really pop when you put it down and for people to get really excited when they see what they are about to tuck into. Try and make the space stand out and look different to how it usually would. Create ambience with candles or pop to the local garden centre and buy some pots of herbs such as rosemary, thyme or lavender – that also creates a really nice smell.

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC

The best tip ever is if you’re stuck on what music to play when you have people coming round then put on a film soundtrack. We went for dinner the other day at Kensington Palace and they were playing the Amélie soundtrack. Alternatively, check out our Spotify playlist here. It’s a mixture of our supper clubs tunes – our usual Northern Soul feel with some other gems.